Late Tang

The boy on the arrow tower who was obviously only sixteen or seventeen years old was the first battle dead today. He was only less than five feet tall, holding an eight-foot spear in his arms, and a pair of longbows on his back.The night before dawn was full of chills. He was half-shrunk, unstoppable on the tall arrow tower, and the cold wind penetrated into his thin shirt, making him unable to help stomping on the narrow arrow tower. Take a walk to beat the cold.

The special warfare team shot a sharp arrow from Touduanshan's powerful bow, which hit him in the chest.The boy let out a muffled snort, and the whole boy fell directly from the three-foot-high arrow tower, and fell heavily on the ground like a broken sack, making a dull sound.

Jing Pirate arranged two people on duty on the arrow tower in front of the village, but before dawn was when they were most lax, and this laxity directly killed them.Duan Shan shot one to death with an arrow, and the other guard was also shot to death by another special warfare soldier.

But the other person was shot in the abdomen, and when he was dying, he screamed loudly.The cry rang out for a long time in the silent night, and the latent attack came to an end. There was a commotion in the gate of the village, and more than a dozen bandits rushed out with torches.

Duan Shan cursed bitterly, and immediately ordered a direct attack.

Li Jing sat on his horse and watched the battle, with Zhang Chengye, the supervisor of the army, beside him.

From this side, the top of the wooded ridge overlooks Buddhist temples, mills, huts and stables, overlooking barren weeds, burnt trees and ubiquitous mud.The trees are almost completely bare, and the few brown and yellow dead leaves on the branches can't block the sight.Zhang Chengye watched the battle below with excitement, but he sat on the horse and watched the battle very honestly, and did not ask to go to the front line.This was Li Jing's request to him before he came out, that he could participate in this bandit suppression, but he could only watch from the rear.In order to protect his safety, Li Jing also specially set up a 50-man supervising army guard for Zhang Chengye from the Liao people's prisoners of war and slaves to protect him closely.

The eastern horizon shone with gold dust, and overhead a half-moon peeked out through low-sprinting clouds.In the cold wind, Li Jing heard the sound of water and the creaking of the big wooden wheel of the mill.There was a smell of rain in the dawn air, but no rain fell.The rocket pierced through the morning mist, leaving pale trails like ribbons that nailed into the wooden walls of the cottage.Some shot through the narrow closed windows, from which wisps of smoke quickly rose.

Holding battle axes, two Jing Pirates rushed out of the Juyi Hall in the cottage side by side. Duan Shan and other archers were waiting for them.The sharp arrows shot out, and one of them was killed immediately, and the iron armor on the other blocked him. Although the arrow entered his body, it was still fatal.He stumbled and continued to move forward, and was hit by another arrow, but he was still alive. Before he died, his desperate heart made him charge forward regardless of the pain. Duan Shan took a throwing ax from his back, and swung it hard at the man. , the flying ax whirled and whizzed and was directly embedded in the pirate's head, stopping his advance immediately.

Duan Shan, a humanoid beast, is always full of violence, with a strong bow that can fight with one stone, two single-handled double-edged stainless steel battle axes, and two small throwing axes that are always stuck on his back.Fighting alone, it can be said that he can completely fight ten with one.This is the elite of the Special Forces. No matter long-range or close combat, immediately or dismounted, stealth or surprise attack, ambush or blocking, these people are all good.

This time the special operations recruited a group of men from Liaodong prisoners of war, slaves, and Daxie sailors, a total of two hundred special elites.This battle was an actual combat drill for Li Jing to pull him out.Li Jing has always believed that the best soldiers are honed from the flames of war, and only soldiers who have passed the test of blood and fire are truly good soldiers.

This is a cottage, but it is also a lair of pirates.

Although pirates plunder the sea, many pirates do not set up their lairs on the sea.On the contrary, more pirates' lairs are on the shore, or even in the mountains.There are many pirates who have dual identities, and some pirates appear to be officers and soldiers, but secretly plunder.Some are fishermen along the coast, and they often take the opportunity to do one or two tickets.There are also many professional pirates, but they usually hide well and have another identity on the shore.

They marry wives and have children, and even the village itself is an ordinary village, no one knows that they are actually pirates.

Li Jing is now leading special operations to attack such a cottage. This looks like an ordinary small village in the mountains of Huang County, Dengzhou, but the rest is a generation of pirate tribes.They don't go out to sea all year round, but only a few times a year. They also have a name on the sea, called Jing Pirates.

Since the Jing Pirates only attack a few times a year and are well hidden, they have not been wiped out.

After the reorganization of the army in Shamen Town, Li Jing made a plan to train troops by war.Take out each battalion in turn to wipe out the pirates and bandits near Dengzhou.The lairs of many bandits and pirates are very secretive, but Li Jing has professional intelligence spies from the Plum Blossom Gate, and Aunt Gongsun has a lot of such information in her hands.Li Jing brought them all over, discussed with the officers for a long time, and then sent Li Wei's reconnaissance battalion to inquire about the terrain and detailed information about the villages.Then hand over the bandits from all walks of life to the respective battalions and capitals below.

Because of their outstanding combat power, they all dispatched troops alone to destroy the Jing Pirates.This group of pirates hides very well. There are about a thousand people in the entire cottage, and more than two hundred of them are young and strong.There are wooden fence walls, Zhaimen and two arrow towers.

But these are not difficult for special warfare.

Flames ignited in the village, and a man in his 40s led a teenager with a crossbow and rushed out, stood in the corner of the house, and shot two arrows at the attacking special forces soldiers.Then he hid back and reloaded. After a while, the father and son probed again and prepared to shoot.

But as soon as they poked their heads out, seven or eight powerful arrows were already waiting for him, roaring towards him.Some of the arrows hit the big man, and the big man reacted quickly and hid back, only injured but not dead.But his son was inexperienced, a feathered arrow pierced through one end of his neck, and leaked out the other end, blood gushed out, he was weak, his eyesight gradually became slack, and finally died.

In the white morning mist, the Special Forces continued to clear the cottage from all directions, and surrounded the Juyi Hall in the center.

The pirates of Jing Pirate roared angrily and rushed out of the houses one after another, even some women rushed forward with knives.A couple of pirates rushed out the door. The husband was holding a spear and a round shield.The wife followed with a large shield and a harpoon in her hand.As soon as they rushed out of the house, Duan Shan's bow and arrow had already aimed at them.

An arrow flew away, and just as the pirate's wife's leg stepped out of the threshold, she was shot in the calf by an arrow, and fell to the ground with a scream.The pirate husband hurriedly looked back, but Duan Shan's second arrow flew again, hitting the pirate's shoulder.

The smoke was getting thicker.Crossbow arrows flew back and forth.

The battle didn't last long, and the pirates suffered heavy casualties.They either fought desperately to the death, or surrendered.The two pirates got on their horses and tried to escape, but just a few steps away, several spears suddenly came out from the grass valley in front of them, knocking the two off the horses, and the horses were also captured by the soldiers of the special warfare capital. get.

The special warfare soldiers who had won a big victory did not stop. Taking advantage of their blood boiling, they began to clean the battlefield according to the standards learned in the teaching class every night, search for the spoils of war, and began to search the whole village.

After a while, the first batch of soldiers returned to the open space in the village, and they brought back the captives who were hiding in the village.There are about five to six hundred people, all of them are family members of pirates, women, old people and children.

"They're hiding in the cellar." The soldier reported loudly. Every household of the pirates has a cellar, but for those specially trained in special warfare, it's close to nothing.The captured prisoners were terrified and trembling one by one.

"Just interrogate them briefly, and ask about all the money, food, and belongings, as well as where their ships are hidden." Li Jing only glanced at the pirates, and was not interested.This group of pirates will definitely not have much money and food, because many of their wives, children, and elderly people look yellow and hungry.

However, although the mosquito legs are small, they are still meat, and Li Jing does not intend to waste them.To train troops with war is also to train war with war.While training soldiers, we should try our best to collect money and food from bandits by suppressing bandits.

Zhang Chengye was full of amazement from the beginning to the end. It was really exciting to see with his own eyes that only 200 people in the special warfare team captured a pirate lair with [-] people in such a short period of time.Hearing Li Jing's order, he couldn't help asking: "General, these people are all pirates. According to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, after their crimes are found out, they will all be executed, and their wives, girls, and children will also have no officials and slaves."

Li Jing smiled: "Killing them would be too cheap for them. Although our Shamen Town is not short of people, we are also short of money and food. Let's take all these pirates to Liaohai to sell them. Wouldn’t money, food and supplies be better?”

He was a little surprised, he didn't expect Li Jing to sell these people as slaves, and he didn't know how to answer for a while.

"Zhang Jianjun, these slaves are killed for nothing. Why don't we exchange them for something more practical. What's more, the money and food exchanged are not only for our own use in Shamen Town, but some can be saved and donated to the emperor in the future."

Hearing this, Zhang Chengye was immediately moved by Li Jing.Since there is still a part of the emperor here, then there is no problem. "Sell, sell all of them, the general must tell his soldiers not to kill these pirates at will."

The interrogation was completed quickly, and Duan Shan personally led people to find out some hidden money and food.Finally, I counted the results of the battle. In this battle, 170 three pirates were killed, including some armed pirate women and teenagers, and a total of 120 pirates, young and old, were captured.In addition, more than 2000 stones of grain, more than 8000 copper coins, and more than 300 bolts of cloth and silk were seized.In addition, there are more than [-] cattle, horses, donkeys and mules in total.And there are five pirate ships.

Although the seizures were less than expected, Li Jing was already very satisfied with the result of zero deaths in this special battle and more than ten casualties.Although the harvest is not much, compared with production, the suppression of bandits is still faster.

"Pack up and bring the pirate captives back!"

(To be continued)